And may the spirit of Humanism bless and keep you.. and Merry Christmas too!

In the States it’s snowing and snowing and snowing. In the DR we had a small earthquake, a little rain and that’s about it. Guess you could say that this isn’t exactly a festive Christmas down here in the Caribbean but it’s very hard for me to feel jolly without all of the positive signs of the holiday visible around me. In fact, I see things that depress me more than fill me with the Christmas spirit.

Every other Friday it’s grocery day and the normal two places to go, PriceMart and Nacional. To get to them you need to force your way through homcidal, ignorant and utterly selfish drivers. You must me approached (and always end up giving money too) impoverished children who’s hair is going pale with malnutrition while the rich in their SUVs ignore them. Today I saw a young man wash a windshield and then watch as the car drove away without paying him. At another corner a mother sits under a tree at one corner of the intersection while he children, as young as my two little ones, beg at car windows. My wife sees the same kids at the interestion all the time. It’s gut wrenching and heart breaking and makes me want to scream at the rich in this country who use their positions to get richer and ignore the poor. What it most certain does most is make me think that Christmas without the Christmas spirit is just another day of injustice. Sounds Liberal as hell, doesn’t it. Good.

What was that Christmas song made back in the 80′s for aid to Africa? “Do they know it’s Christmas?”?? Well, at 6am a couple of mornings ago I sure as shit did. A marching band..an “in full uniform” marching fucking band, came down our residential street (residential except for the god shop across the way) pumping away at a Christmas tune. They weren’t that bad really, but the incongruity of them waking the world up at 6am just makes me shake my head and wonder what genius thought up doing such a thing. I mean, I realize that considering your fellow man in any way, shape or form disappears in this country as fast as it takes a person to step across the threshhold of their church and into the light of day but 6am??? Ridiculous but not, I will say, unbelievable here.

I love Christmas and don’t call it “Happy Holidays” for the simple reason that I don’t consider Christmas to be a religious holiday. For sure it never started out that way. The day was, in fact, a Turkish cult celebration day (considering that Jesus was a June baby I think we don’t have to really worry about the Christ sitting in heaven with a party hat every year but having to watch us idolize Santa Claus instead) and at the same time roughly celebrated alone with the Roman festival of Saturnalia. I think it’s pretty clear that the early church wanted to pre-empt the pagan holidays and chose December 25th as their day. I don’t particularly care, really. I think it’s a fine time of year to think of joy and being good to people and giving gifts. Without the baggage of religion attached I love how people feel good, feel the urge to be nicer, give gifts and celebrate the really, truly good things that the holiday season brings.

So, whatever the hell you think Christmas is there for, I want to wish you all a Merry whateverthe fuck. Happy Holidays, Happy Chanukhah, Happy “I invented my own religion” (I’m looking at you Kwanzah-Klaus) or Winter Solstice. To all the Atheists out there I say this; don’t sweat the symbolism, dudes. It’s harmless as long as your ain’t near the church when it lets out and the days off are nice. Get your kids some presents, stuff their stockings and watch the cartoons, which are first class this time of year. I recommend “The Polar Express”.

Personally, as a non-religious person I plan on saying “Merry Christmas” to everyone this year because, quite frankly, I like the way it sounds. I’ve already played the big fat guy in the red suit twice this year and if you saw the kids smiling at Santa, singing songs with him and being so happy when they got presents, you’d realize that it isn’t religion that makes this holiday special.

It’s love.

Some pie-crust promises for the New Year. Resolving to resolve.

Here’s a straightforward list of what I am thankful for this year, in no particular order.

1. The health and happiness of my wife and children.
2. The safe pregnancy, seeming good health and upcoming birth of Alistair George Taylor..the last of the line.
3. Being a Foreign Service Officer for the greatest country on the face of the planet. It’s the greatest job and the hardest job but the most rewarding.
4. Having a job, with promotions and raises, in uncertain times. I was poor when times were good and rich when times were bad.
5. My supervisors and colleagues. I have been very lucky. In a bad situation I have a Consul General, a Chief of Visa Operations and two supervisors (in ACS and IV) who are all fair, decent and exceptional people. I’m lucky, for them and for the fellow foot soldiers who make days bearable.
6. Barack Hussein Obama. Nothing more to say there.
7. A very few, but very dear, friends. They’re spread around the world, in Manila and Iloilo, in Washington, DC and the burbs therein, here in Santo Domingo and around the globe. I love you all and miss you terrible..unless you’re right here of course.
8. Being chosen to become the ACS Chief in Taipei. I still have some trouble believing that. With that comes two years of learning Mandarin Chinese, which I’ve already started and already find fascinating.
9. Last but of course not last, LOVE. I am blessed and cursed by it because I feel strongly about so many things. It’s love that is strong and because of that affects me strongly. It is also love that drives me forward, pushed me out of bed in the morning and puts tears of joy in my eyes to realize what I’ve been given in life. There’s much to love in this world and much to scorn, but I hope to have more to love as life goes on.

Next year I’ll publish my New Year’s Resolutions. That ought to be fun. I wonder how much the 1ǃᆝ list will resemble the 1ǃᆜ list. Funny how much copy and pasting I do with these things.

Usually enjoy it…

I almost never feel the need to say I dislike my job, because for the most part I really don’t. It’s a great job, I earned it and fought for it and I am always happy I have it, especially nowadays. What I don’t like about it is rewarding people who commit crimes or acts of dishonesty, something I do all too often. I often catch myself thinking “If only my mother knew what I did for a living”, but thankfully she doesn’t get into details. I imagine I’d be disowned.

I won’t get into the details but I am counting the days before I can leave the Dominican Republic and refocus my career. I’ve even broken up the six months left into manageable, bite-sized pieces; January means a new year, February I go on paternity leave and afterwards comes the serious preparation for deparing post. It all seems like a dream.

My Domincan friends and colleagues should know that I value the friendships I’ve made here, but I’m just not fitting in well with the Caribbean island experience. Some people aren’t suited for it and I’m just one of those people. I’ve no regrets about coming here and surely the good experiences I’ve had will shine through while the negatives fade into the background clutter. I just can’t wait to leave, no offense.

Six months, two weeks and two days before I depart Post, if you’re counting.

What Blogs May Come….and Indeed They Must.

What blog may come and why it must.
Welcome to day one of my blog. Like diets and quitting smoking who knows whether there’ll be a day TWO, but we can hope. I’ve been, and still am, unwilling to drop my trousers and show you everything I am and have ever been, but I will allow that perhaps its theraputic and perhaps I’m just ignoring the 21st century’s version of “Dear Diary”. The thing is, I always thought diaries were to be secret and for certain, were I to have one, it would be. (editorial note- the author is not denigrating the art of showing off one’s bottom by dropping trou but is only using a term to make a point. On the whole, the writer is a fan of and perpetrator therein of “trouser dropping” whenever the opportunity presents itself. Onward.)

BUT, I have noticed a decided urge to write more than can be posted easily on my Facebook page and noticed that particularly exceptional person of my aquaintance writes alot using this very blog engine (term check…did I use the write expression here?) so here I am. This person may find it amusing after some comments of mine to find me here but perhaps my above reasoning will answer why the change. There’s also the fact that I’ll never populate my blog to the equal of this particular person so there’s no competition in process.

I will not fail to write down what’s interesting to me here and some of it will likely be offensive to a portion of my friends, I’m sorry to say. The problem with writing, however, is that you are forever associated with the words you’ve put down even if those words are forgotten soon after reading and then regurgitated again 100yrs later, or perhaps a thousand or two thousand. There’s an urgent responsibility to write the truth as it appears in one’s soul, in one’s heart, and not skimp. This may not be YOUR truth but it is A truth and to lie, to write down something that isn’t felt in one’s heart and believed unequivocally, is a crime on par with murder and a detriment to society. “”To one’s self be true”, etc..etc. Quite right, that.

That being said, I won’t want to embarrass people so limitations will occur. Even orgies have rules, you know. Never fear, I am still sure that some members of my family who read this will take issue and label me **gasp** a “Liberal” , “Socialist”, “Communist”, “Traitor” or even worse. The first I accept willingly, the second I accept in principal but not in practice..yet, and the rest are bullshit but since Barack Obama was called the same things (and still is) I revel in the incomparable association. What I’m trying to say in these above paragraphs is that whatever happens I will not LIE to you and isn’t that all one can really hope for from a friend?

In this blog (and why “blog”, I ask?) I will use naughty language and innuendos and try to be myself. I may comment on religion and politics (certainly politics) and make some people mad, or even try to make people mad. In a peak of honesty I may open my mouth when it shouldn’t be opened but hopefully I’ll put some breathing time between my poison and my pen. I will also document the trials and travails of my quest to learn Mandarin prior to my assignment as American Citizen Services Chief at the American Institute of Taiwan where I will be spending time as an unofficial advisor (yes, this is an approved term whereas “Diplomat” is not). At the end of February a new son (his name is Allistair George Taylor and he’ll look like me I suspect, poor bugger) will enter the family and add to the possibility of me having a better home at my next assignment (and isn’t that why YOU have sex???) so I’ll certainly write about that too. Finally, I will move back to Wisconsin where we’ve purchased a home and spend the entire summer, from July to September, working on it and being a domesticated animal before returning to my diplomatic alter-ego and the exotic, sexy, orally challenging and entirely daunting language that is Mandarin after which, I promise, I will never look at those tiny oranges the same again.

I will probably also include pieces of fiction that I start writing with the hopes of making something stick, in a literary way. If you chose to read it and comment please use the words “excellent” and “fresh” often but refrain from “ambitious” (which means “nice try..BUT”) and “horseshit” (lets not bring Sarah Palin into this, shall we?). I consider “awesome” an acceptable but overused term and will view any adjective ending with “vomit” to be negative no matter what the author tells me he/she REALLY meant.

In closing I dedicate this to my family as they are the engine that makes this little train (with it’s fat caboose) go up the hill every morning and the home to which he returns every night. A portion must also has to go to that unnamed (a gentlemen never tells) friend who’s labors always kept me wondering if I should start blogging too. Well, I decided I must so let the consequences be damned. Finally, I dedicate this page to curiosity and the willingness to take one’s most trusted beliefs and ideas and subject them to the light of study. I applaud all who do not allow their most core beliefs to go unscanned and, once facts and uncovered than make old ideas untenable, reject those beliefs in the ever evolving quest for truth. Nothing is too cherished for examination, my friends. Nothing. Honesty demands it. Life demands it. Our existence demands it.

This page is a virgin but like all for almost all virgins the end has arrived and a beginning is made. Also like a virgin (alas, a Madonna reference..the first and last) it will evolve from simplicity (missionary) to complexity (tantric anyone?) and I hope you enjoy it.

As always, I send you peace, love and a hope for a better tomorrow.